Template - Date: Players Championships Barnsley

MICHAEL VAN GERWEN completed a clean sweep of the Players Championship treble-header at the Barnsley Metrodome as he claimed a third successive midweek win, landing a second nine-darter in as many days before edging out Steve West in a brilliant final.

Van Gerwen had already followed up back-to-back European Tour wins by taking the £10,000 first prize in Players Championships on Tuesday and Wednesday in Barnsley. Having also hit a nine-darter in Wednesday’s tournament, the Dutchman secured perfection once more as one of three players, alongside Yordi Meeuwisse and Simon Whitlock, to achieve the feat in Thursday’s event.

Having already seen off Kevin Painter and Jonny Clayton, van Gerwen landed his perfect leg in the third round against Joe Murnan, before then defeating Simon Stevenson, Berry van Peer and Kim Huybrechts to reach the final against West. West had enjoyed a run to his first PDC final with a superb day in Barnsley, overcoming Mike Zuydwijk, William O’Connor, Jeffrey de Zwaan, Simon Whitlock, Cristo Reyes and Steve Evans to battle through to the decider.

He found himself 4-2 down to van Gerwen before hitting back to level – and then took out 116 to move 5-4 up and within touching distance of a first PDC title. However, van Gerwen finished 76 to level and force a decider, and when West was unable to take out 110 for the title the world number one showed his class by finishing tops for a 13-darter.

The win means van Gerwen completed a clean sweep in Barnsley and extended his own winning run to 35 matches since his loss to Phil Taylor in August’s Sydney Darts Masters final – having won the Perth Darts Masters before five September triumphs to move into this weekend’s Unibet Champions League of Darts in buoyant mood.

West’s consolation for his run to the final was £6,000 in prize money and qualification for October’s Unibet World Grand Prix in Dublin on a dramatic final day in the race for spots in the double-start tournament. Spanish ace Reyes also sealed a World Grand Prix debut with his run to the quarter-finals, with Justin Pipe and Josh Payne being knocked out of provisional qualifying places as Vincent van der Voort also narrowly missed out on a Dublin spot.

Mick McGowan’s displays this week, including Tuesday’s semi-final appearance, mean that the Irish ace also qualifies for a return to the World Grand Prix, having previously competed in the World Grand Prix on three occasions. Ricky Evans enjoyed his best run on the ProTour for almost three years as he reached the semi-finals, defeating Mike De Decker, Benito van de Pas, Mark Webster, Stephen Bunting and Chris Dobey.

Evans also missed double 12 for a nine-darter during the day, and fell two matches short of securing a World Grand Prix place, had he gone on to win the event. Belgian ace Huybrechts also won through to the last four, while emerging star Dobey was a quarter-finalist for the first time on the circuit.

Dutch youngster Berry van Peer was a quarter-finalist for the second time on the PDC ProTour, while Rowby-John Rodriguez also reached the last eight of a ProTour event for the first time since February. Dutchman Meeuwisse landed a nine-darter for the first time since he joined the PDC circuit, although it came in a narrow 6-5 first round loss to Benito van de Pas, while Australian ace Whitlock achieved his perfect leg in a second round win over Andrew Gilding.

The Players Championship events were streamed with action simultaneously from two stream boards throughout the week, with the further events in Dublin on September 30 and October 1 also to be screened through www.LIVEPDC.TV